Progress on side-yard beds

Got to do a little bit of work over the past couple days on my plan to transform the western side of the house into planter boxes. Currently there are a lot of palettes with various materials on them – brick, stone, pieces of bamboo, some fence boards, etc. But with a decent amount of sun throughout the day, the presence of sprinkler system heads and the positioning between two downspouts, future vegetables ought to grow really well there.

Today I moved a lot of the stuff that was there, broke up some palettes, and pulled up a lot of bermuda grass, straggler daisy and stray sunflowers. Many of the palette pieces will serve to make the planter sides. After that I’ll pile leaves and compost there and slowly add more soil. I even have enough parts and supplies on hand to add micro-drilled soaker lines. With any luck it will be ready for planting next Spring.

Which reminds me… my mom showed me some really impressive beds built with concrete blocks. Essentially the blocks are just stacked, not mortared, and dirt is placed not only inside the perimeter of blocks but in the two hollow chambers of the blocks themselves. The soil near the blocks gains extra alkalinity from them… a boon to plants that need it (which is many Hill Country natives). The photo I saw showed strawberries planted in the blocks. I’m pretty sure she was referencing Urban Harvest in Houston when she showed me the photos, but I couldn’t find it again. Instead, I did find an article there about building beds with concrete blocks.

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6 Responses to "Progress on side-yard beds"

I have more palettes from my inventory if you need some. I know they are everywhere, but I get at least two a month, so just holler. I love the concrete blocks, like they have at East Side Cafe, with herbs growing in the cinder holes. Lots of interesting gardens around town. I’m going to photograph some and blog, but I slammed my camera in the car hatch door, so I need to fix that.

Thanks for the offer, Carla – very sweet. I’m pretty well set for palettes. Had too many of them and we get plenty at work. I actually find them pretty hard to work with as they ate really hard to take apart, the lumber usually splits, and those twisted nails usually don’t come out either. But they do make good fuel for the firepit in winter!

Urban Harvest does advocate the use of concrete blocks in all the gardend they help to design. At Oak Forest we had already been given the landscape timbers and built all our beds before we became Urban Harvest affiliated. Some day if the money is available or donated blocks we will redo. The Village Learning and Achievement Center here in Kingwood started an Organic garden last spring (2009). They did use all new concrete blocks and have had awesome harvests from the start. They get tons of grant money and can afford all the best. They do get almost all their labor from volunteers though. We have some pictures of their beds we can share with you.

By the way, if the side bed gets sun in the winter, you should do a cool season garden there with lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc. With some frost cover you probably could keep it going from October until spring.

That photo of the raised beds made of concrete blocks was actually in the May/June issue of the “Texas Gardener”. Those pcokets are ideal for herbs that need well drianed soil and a bit of alkalinity. Those include rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender, etc.